MUREHWA Culture Centre in Mashonaland East will this week host the annual Mbende Jerusarema Dance Festival, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) has said.
The famous dance festival is regarded as one of the ways of preserving local culture, tradition, spirituality and history in Zimbabwe.
With the so-called globalisation, traditional dances such as the Mbende Jerusarema that celebrate the culture of the Shona people are in danger of being relegated to the dustbins.
But what exactly is Mbende Jerusarema?
According to NACZ programmes officer in Murehwa, Ronald Biza, it is a fertility dance that involves courtship between a man and woman.
He said two drums of the same height, but different circumferences, representing both the man and woman are used in the dance which is mostly performed in Mashonaland East, particularly Murehwa and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe.
The dance is characterised by physical and acrobatic movements by women in unison with men, driven by a single polyrhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock clappers (manja) and women handclapping, yodelling and blowing whistles.
Biza said the name Mbende was derived from a type of mice with the same name by the ancient Shona people.
In the course of the dance, men often bend while jerking both arms energetically and kicking in the air backwards with the right leg, in a way, imitating the digging of a hole by a mouse.
The dancers usually wear animal skins or tattered cloths and dance in a cow horn formation.
However, if there is one man who has popularised Mbende Jerusarema it is Douglas Vambe who is known for the ZBC news opening and closing clip both on television and radio.
The man has travelled regionally and internationally because of his art of playing the Mbende Jerusarema drums.
He also conducts training sessions for youths at Murehwa Culture Centre as part of his social responsibility.
In recognition of Mbende Jerusarema as an important dance, NACZ communications and marketing officer, Cathrine Mtombeni said the dance will be compulsory at this year’s edition of the Jikinya Dance Festival.
“NACZ chose the Mbende Jerusarema dance as a common dance for the 2013-14 Jikinya Dance Festival as a way of safeguarding and promoting the dance in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Such traditional dances, Mtombeni said, reminded Zimbabweans of past events and aspirations of the nation.
The dances have been critical in the resistance and fight against colonialism.
It is important to note that in 2005 the Mbende Jerusarema dance became the first Zimbabwean dance to be proclaimed a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity with Murehwa Culture Centre as the reference point.
To protect the dance, a safeguarding committee was established in 2007.